


On Aging Better

by rvd



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, Future Fic, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 06:16:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rvd/pseuds/rvd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen years after Commander Shepard saved the galaxy, James and Esteban have a family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Aging Better

James Vega never thought he would have kids. He never thought he would settle down. He never thought he would be living in a large, open house in Yucatán. Hell, for a while he never thought he would live past thirty.

He never thought a lot of things that ended up happening.

He didn’t think he would live past thirty. He didn’t think he could join the Alliance. He didn’t think he would fall in love. He didn’t think he would survive the Reapers. He didn’t think Esteban would love him back.

He didn’t think he would have kids.

“Papá,” says Sofía from the ground. She holds out her arms and pouts, the sign that she wants him to pick her up.

He does, and she immediately puts her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso, making it easier for him to continue cooking even with her in his arms. It comes with a familiarity that shows how many times they’ve done it before.

Esteban would despair at him for his resolve. He would also probably despair at James for holding their three-year-old daughter so close to the stove while he’s cooking, but that’s neither here nor there.

“What’s up, Sofí?” he asks her.

She puts her face into neck and says, “’Fina doesn’t wanna play with me.”

“Watch out,” he warns her, and flips the rice. “José?” he says in response to his daughter. “She needs her space. She’s old now—”

“Like you?” says Sofía, too sweetly. He narrows his eyes at her, puts the pan back on the stove, and tickles her until she’s laughing, “Stop it, Papá, _stop_.”

“Papi’s older than me,” he complains. “I don’t get why _I’m_ the old one.”

“Papi aged better,” she says with her infinite three-year-old wisdom.

James gapes at her. “Where did you hear that?”

“I overheard ’Fina and Papi talking.”

“My own husband betrayed me,” he laments. The rice is ready, and a quick check to the chicken shows that is too. He juggles his daughter in one arm and in the other hand he takes one pan at a time at puts them onto serving plates. He taps Sofía’s arms, and puts his around her. “Since you obviously favor him, go tell Papi dinner’s ready.”

She darts in to kiss his cheek when he sets her down, and goes off in a swirl of blue.

He’s setting the table when Esteban comes in alone, meaning Sofía went to tell the rest of the kids. Esteban kisses James lightly, and takes the silverware from him to set the table.

“You ‘aged better’?” James asks over his shoulder, going into the kitchen to get the food.

“Not my words,” Esteban says, and James comes back into the room in time to see him shrug. “But true, viejo.”

“Cabrón,” James says without heat. “You started that didn’t you?”

Esteban at least has the decency to look a little ashamed. “Not on purpose.”

James puts his arms around Esteban, his front to Esteban’s back, and rests his chin on his shoulder. Esteban’s skin is damp; he smells fresh and not at all like oil. He always takes a shower after coming in from the garage. “I’m not old,” James says quietly. He’s hardly forty.

Esteban traces lightly over the tattoo on James’s forearm. “Your tattoos are fading. You should get them touched up.”

James smiles suggestively even though Esteban can’t see, and says, “Even México?” James can’t see him do it, but he knows Esteban rolls his eyes.

“ _Especially_ México.”

James is going to say something but Francisca beats him to the punch. “Stop being _gross_.”

“What’s gross?” asks James, letting go of Esteban to snatch Francisca up. “Is _this_ gross?” He blows a raspberry on Francisca’s cheek, much to her displeasure.

“ _Ew_ , let me _go_!” Francisca demands, and pushes at James’s chest until, laughing, James releases her. Francisca rubs at her cheek, and tells James, “Stop being weird, Papá.” James ruffles her hair as she passes by to sit next to Emilio, who snuck in when James was lavishing attention on his twin.

James sits between Sofía and Emilio, and asks the table at large, “Is José not eating with us? Is she too cool for us now?”

“Too cool for you maybe,” Esteban says. He manages to keep a straight face for all of ten seconds but crumbles in the face of Sofía’s giggles.

“Stop _calling_ me that,” Josefina gripes, appearing in the doorway of the dining room, and plopping down in the remaining chair.

“And what am I supposed to call you? _Jefe_?”

“How about Josefina? Like everyone else?”

“Okay,” he says easily. “Whatever you say, José.”

She huffs and widens her eyes at Esteban. Esteban gives James a warning look, and James holds up his hands in surrender, still grinning.

“Stop baiting her,” Esteban says later, when they’re doing the dishes and the kids are in their rooms.

James blinks at Esteban. “What? I’m not baiting her.”

“You know she doesn’t like being called José, and you keep calling her that to get a reaction out of her.”

“I…”

“I know,” Esteban says, and he undoubtedly does; Esteban’s knowledge of James’s psyche is impressive. “Just. Give her a break, okay?”

James finds it hard to swallow, but forces himself to anyway before he says, “Yeah, okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sudden angst! It wasn't meant to happen, I'm sorry. 
> 
> To clarify some things:
> 
> This operates under the idea that Cortez's first name is Esteban but he goes by Steve as a nickname. 
> 
> Yucatán is a state in Mexico on the peninsula.  
> Viejo means old in Spanish.  
> Cabrón means asshole.  
> México refers to the Mexican flag James has tattooed somewhere... intimate.  
> Jefe means boss.
> 
> In this Josefina is 14; the twins, Francisca and Emilio, are 10; and Sofía is 3.


End file.
